La Ciudad Perdida

We trekked La Ciudad Perdida (the Lost City) for 5 days and returned on Saturday. IT WAS AWESOME!!! Hardcore backpacking through the Colombian jungles and sleeping on hammocks at night. There were 17 of us on the trek with 3 or 4 guides. Our group was great and I loved spending so much time getting to know so many interesting people.

Let me backtrack a bit though. Tacanga has been a lot of fun. We made friends! Yay! When we were in San Gil, Steve and I met up with 2 guys from Denmark, Anders and Mads, and 1 from Canada, Corey, and we all traveled to Tacanga and stayed in the same hostel, the Pelikan. We had been hanging out in Tacanga together, going to the beaches and most all of our time together in a little party of 5. We did a 2 hour hike to Playa Grande and other beaches and had a freshly caught super yummy fish for like $7!

The 5 of us decided to go to the Ciudad Perdida together so we got a discount. The others on the trek were from Israel, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, and Colombia. At any time you heard a mixture of English, Spanish, Hebrew, Danish, German, and French. haha

The trek was long but I loved it. I forget how much I love being dirty, muddy, and exhausted. haha We tromped through rivers, rock climbed, went over and under trees, up huge mountains and down steep slopes- hiking about 7-8 hours a day. The guides cooked for us though which was great. We didn´t have to worry about anything but what we packed and carried on our backs. Of course I brought way too much stuff. I basically only wore one outfit the entire trip and wore dry long pants and a shirt at night and in having thought that I would want to wear new clothes everyday, I brought wayy too much and my pack was heavy hahaha. But carrying it made me tougher I think... Also my savvy packing skills provided some of the guys on the trip an extra dry shirt (even though it was a girl´s shirt, they still appreciated it haha), a jacket, and great bug repellent (thank you Target).

To get to the Lost City we had to climb 2000 mini stone steps that the Tayrona Indians built between 1500 and 2000 years ago. They were slippery but reaching the city was worth it. We saw ceremonial places, jails, living areas, burial areas, all these places that the Tayronas built and left abandoned when the Spaniards came. It was full of gold when explorers found it about 30 years ago but most of the gold is now in Colombia´s famous Gold Museum in Bogota. We actually stayed in the Lost City for a night and one of the guides gave me a special tour of the Ceremonial areas under the stars since I had to go to the bathroom when he was showing some of the others earlier in the day. It was aweseome being surrounded by jungle in a 2000 year old stone ceremonial area under a clear night´s sky! At nights we would all sit around and chat or play cards. I learned a lot about Colombia´s drug history, the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, and got a better understanding of how Colombian´s view their country and way of life. It was super interesting. I also learned more than I ever could have imagined I would about Israel and Denmark. haha

Food was great. I must have a tough stomach too because a lot of people had stomach problems but not me! I just had such a great time on this trek- I can´t even begin to describe it. I´m looking into trekking options in Peru now too. We won´t have much time in Peru since we want to see Macchu Pichu, Lake Titicaca and make it back up to Quito in less than a month but hopefully I will be able to squeeze it in!